The Week That Was: All of Lawfare in One Post
Your weekly summary of everything on the site.
Published by The Lawfare Institute
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Jen Patja Howell shared an episode of Rational Security: “The Firings Will Continue Until Morale Improves’ Edition.” Benjamin Wittes, Tamara Cofman Wittes, Susan Hennessey and Shane Harris discussed President Trump’s firing of Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) director Christopher Krebs and other matters:
Benjamin Wittes, Rohini Kurup and Susan Hennessey praised Chris Krebs for serving in a political position under President Trump without compromising his integrity.
David Priess explained why the intelligence community isn’t currently sharing the President’s Daily Brief with President-elect Joe Biden.
Bryce Klehm shared a letter from two Democrat senators urging the acting inspector general of the Department of Defense to investigate the appointment of the newly selected general counsel to the National Security Agency.
William Ford summarized House Republicans’ legal challenge in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to proxy voting.
Jen Patja Howell shared an episode of The Lawfare Podcast, entitled “Homegrown: ISIS in America,” in which Jacob Schulz sat down with Seamus Hughes, who wrote a book of the same title with Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens and Bennett Clifford:
Rohini Kurup shared the FBI’s 2019 annual report on hate crimes and summarized the report’s key findings.
Stephanie Kelemen discussed why the president invoked the Defense Production Act to allow continued meat production during the pandemic.
Stewart Baker shared an episode of the Cyberlaw Podcast, entitled “Trump’s Multiple Re-Entry China Policy Vehicles”:
Sean Quirk analyzed the latest developments in the South China Sea—including an uptick in Chinese military activity around Taiwan—in this month’s edition of "Water Wars."
Jordan Schneider shared an episode of ChinaTalk featuring an interview with Paul Haung on conflict between China and Taiwan:
Bill Priestap and Holden Triplett argued that China will likely detain U.S. executives in response to America’s detaining of Huawei executives.
Jen Patja Howell posted an episode of the Lawfare Podcast featuring an interview with Lawfare’s foreign policy editor, Dan Byman, on the reported killing of top Al Qaeda leadership in Iran:
Courtney Freer discussed the future of politics in Kuwait in Lawfare’s Foreign Policy Essay.
Tia Sewell discussed the U.S.’s strategy (or lack thereof) for countering the drug trade in Afghanistan.
Howell also shared an episode of the Lawfare Podcast entitled, “Is Trump Creating a Deep State?” in which Benjamin Wittes sat down with Susan Hennessey, who recently wrote an article about the NSA General Counsel appointment; Scott Anderson, Lawfare senior editor; and Rudy Mehrbani, a senior advisor at Democracy Fund Voice and a senior fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice, about the president installing loyalists in the civil service:
Stefan Soesanto argued that Europe lacks a coherent strategy on cyber sanctions against hackers.
Sewell posted a livestream of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing on the 2020 election and social media, with testimony from tech CEOs Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey.
Howell shared an episode of the Lawfare Podcast featuring a conversation between Benjamin Wittes and Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman about the future of the U.S.’s Eastern Europe policy:
And Vindman took questions from a live audience on this week's Lawfare Live:
And that was the week that was.